Why Do We Need a VA?

My youngest son and I were watching the news, getting ready for the Spurs sweep. A story came on about the over 260-day wait for an initial visit in a VA hospital. Later, a supposedly conservative commentator said,”Instead of hiring 14,000 new agents for the IRS, we should hire those 14,000 people for the VA.” No wonder the Republicans seem like they have lost their way. They don’t even ask the right questions any more.

I couldn’t believe I heard a “conservative” accept the premise of larger government instead of asking Why do we need a VA in the first place? The VA was born when medical care was not widely available and when it was, not many hospitals could handle the type of trauma seen in combat. Neither of those are the case any longer.

Health care is allegedly one year from being universal and traumas centers are licensed, ranked (Levels 1, 2 and 3) and well-staffed. Sadly, almost every urban ER sees wartime combat wounds on a daily basis. In this environment, why don’t we give our veterans government-subsidized health insurance that they can use at any hospital in the world? Why don’t we give our combat veterans the gold-plated version?

Republicans should be using this as an opportunity to shrink government. This is an easy target with an easy solution. The Democrats should be touting of the benefits of Obamacare by giving the very best of it to our veterans. At least that’s what they would be doing if either side actually believed what they are telling us.

A well-insured person can get in to any doctor he or she needs very quickly. 260 days can become 2.6 days. We don’t need to “fix” the VA, we need to get rid of it and spend the same money (or less) giving our veterans the freedom to go to whatever doctor they want.